A sampling of 10 questions with Paul Lusk

Sounding like a basketball coach eager to put a 22-loss season further in the rear-view mirror, Missouri State’s Paul Lusk sat down earlier this week with the News-Leader’s Lyndal Scranton and touched on a variety of topics in anticipation of the start of practice on Friday.

Entering his third season with a 27-38 record, Lusk talked about the building process that included some serious bumps in the road and how he’s confident of the approach starting to pay dividends this season.

The Bears have a 14-man roster that includes three incoming freshmen, senior transfer big man Emmanuel Addo from Northern Colorado and junior college transfer Ron Mvouika. Senior Jarmar Gulley is back after sitting out last season with a knee injury. Marcus Marshall, last season’s Missouri Valley Conference freshman of the year, is older.

It’s clear that Lusk likes his team and its for a dramatic turnaround. With that, here’s a sampling of 10 Question with Paul Lusk that will appear in Thursday’s News-Leader and at News-Leader.com

Question: You appear to be a much deeper team than you’ve been the last two years, how do you go about dividing available minutes and keep everyone on the roster satisfied?

Lusk: “I was asked that a while ago and someone said, ‘well, you’re gonna have to keep some guys happy.’ I said I look at it the opposite way. They’re going to have to keep me happy. I’m the one giving out the minutes. How do you keep the head coach, how do you keep the coaching staff happy? By producing. We’re going to play the guys who play the hardest and the guys who produce. I think that’s a positive thing. That’s going to make us a better team and make us a better program. It’s going to make each individual player better when they have to go out there (in practice) from 3-6 every day and earn their minutes.”

About MSU Sports Central

Lyndal Scranton and Erin Bolen cover MSU sports teams for the News-Leader. Get their perspective on university sports throughout the season. Join in by clicking to comment on any of the blog entries below.